Researchers surveyed more than 4,000 adolescents, at least half of whom played video games. Overall, gaming posed no negative health consequences on boys, but among girls, it was a different story.

Yale found a link between regular game play and girls getting into serious fights and carrying a weapon to school.

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Researchers also found that problematic gaming was linked to regular cigarette smoking, drug use, depressions and fights in both boys and girls.

The Yale study, published in the journal Pediatrics, is among the first and largest to examine possible health risks associated with video games in adolescents.

The study also showed that less than 5 percent of those surveyed reported having trouble cutting back on their gaming amd boys were more likely to feel that way than girls.

"The results suggest that, in general, recreational gaming is relatively harmless, particularly in boys. This is in contract to many previously publicized reports suggesting that gaming leads to aggression," said Rani Desai, an associate professor of psychiatry and epidemiology and public health at Yale.

Desai said more research is needed to define safe levels of gaming and to evaluate effective prevention and intervention strategies.